How to Format Citations and Sources using APA Guidelines

Writing Guidelines

The APA (American Psychological Association) provides guidelines for writers who are writing for academic publication, college papers, thesis, and dissertations. APA guidelines cover everything from grammar, font, spacing, and margins to formatting citations and sources. This article goes into detail on formatting citations and sources. For more information on some of the other guidelines, see the Resources section below.

Difficulty:

Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Documented sources from valid research
• Quoted, summarized, or paraphrased information from the sources

1. First, make sure your research is valid. There are several ways to check the validity of your sources (see related article in Resources) and for the purposes of this process we will assume you have done this. Sources in an APA referenced paper are written, electronic or hard copy, that can be accessed by the reader for further information or clarification.

2. The reference page (this page is always titled 'References' in APA formatted writing, NEVER 'Works Cited' or 'Bibliography' and NEVER in all caps) is the last page of the document, and it includes the header information and page number. The sources are listed in alphabetical order and there is a source for every citation in the body of the document. A source may be cited multiple times, but is listed only once. If you do not cite a source, you cannot list it on the reference page.

3. The basic format of an electronic source is this: Author Last Name, First Initial. (year of publication) Title of Article, Name of Publication or Website in italics. Retrieved on -date- from -website- Example: Sullivan, J. (2008). How to Format Citations and Sources using APA Guidelines, eHow.com. Retrieved on December 29, 2008 from http://www.ehow.com/how_4696685_citations-sources-using-apa-guidelines.html . The source is double-spaced with the second and any subsequent lines indented ½ inch.

4. If there is no author, start the source listing with the title of the article, followed by (n.a.) and the date, etc. If there is no date, use (n.d.) to indicate no date of publication. Keep the listing in alphabetical order starting with the author's last name OR the title of the article, whichever leads the listing.

5. The citation in the body of the text points directly to the source, and to make that relationship easy to determine, the citation is formatted with the Author's last name and the year of publication ONLY. Example: (Sullivan, 2008). If there is no author, the citation looks like this: (How to Format Citations and Sources using APA Guidelines, 2008). If there is no date, it looks like this: (Sullivan, n.d.). The citation is placed AFTER the paraphrased, summarized, or quoted reference information, in parenthesis, BEFORE the period.

Tips & Warnings

• Sources cited in the text and listed on the reference page cannot be from in-person interviews because the reader cannot 'look up' the source for further information.

• Remember, if what you are writing is not your own, original thought or idea, you must give credit where credit is due. Cite your sources.

Resources

• How to Format your Essay using Basic APA Formatting
• How to Validate Your Research Sources